Shaky Foot Forward
by The Happy Donut
Summary: I think ABC could have given us Jeddie fans a little more after Eddie asked Janet out, and so, I chose to rewrite what happened after that. I know they had their first date at the Hideaway but I thought that this would be a nicer transition.
1. Chapter 1

[Note: Just a one-off for now guys ;) I was inspired :) But I may add one more chapter later on.]

Janet slammed the top of her alarm clock and hit 'snooze' for the fourth time that morning. She groaned and eased out of bed. She knew she had to get up, but today of all days she really didn't want to. She wanted to sleep in and play and replay the moment she and Eddie shared in the bar the night before. Her mind was still reeling from the moment Eddie asked her out. She couldn't keep the butterflies down in her stomach as she thought about it. Before that night, in a million years, Janet never would have so much as entertained the thought of dating Eddie Latekka. He was Eddie Latekka for crying out loud! They may have had a friendly bartender-patron relationship, but that was about it. People like Eddie didn't go out with people like Janet. It just wasn't done. So what had gotten into him? Was he that low from striking out with the leggy brunette earlier in the night?

Janet's eyes flew wide open. That was it. _Oh, you idiot!_ She scolded herself and smacked her hand over her head. Eddie was just drunk and frustrated from his failed conquest with the young college chick that in a moment of insanity and drunkenness he asked out the next available female – her. Janet's heart sank. Of course, that was it. Why would Eddie ask her out if not to prove something to himself and his followers?

Janet stood before the mirror now, with a sigh threw her hair into a messy knot on top of her head, and jumped right into her day. She would handle this the only way she knew how; ignore the fact that it ever happened.

* * *

><p>"Hey Janet, how'd you go last night?" Sully's voice boomed from behind her when she got into work. She jumped out of her skin and whipped around to look at Sully in the face.<p>

"Fine. Why? What have you heard?" she asked and got a strange look from Sully.

"Nothing," he frowned, "Are you okay? You look more nervous than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs," he commented eyeballing her.

"I'm fine," she said walking around him and fastening her apron to her waist.

Sully shrugged, "Well anyway, as you know the Pumpkin Fest is in a week and we still haven't decorated this place. So I was wondering if you could help Rooster out tonight and – "

"Oh Sully," Janet started to whine.

"I know it's asking for a lot. You've pulled late shifts for the past week but I could really use your help around here kiddo," Sully's pooled puppy dog eyes were a dirty trick he always played on her when he wanted his way.

"Fine," Janet relented. What else did she have to do? All the other staff members had families and kids they had to be with, but not her. No siree Bob. She got to do late shifts and put up with drunken passes all night.

"Thanks kiddo, I'll tell Rooster – "

"Uh Rooster can't make it into work today," Roxy, another waitress who had overheard their conversation, chimed in.

"What? Why not?" Sully demanded.

"He broke his leg climbing up his grandmother's tree to get her cat out," Karen replied before she disappeared into the kitchen.

Sully sighed tiredly and rubbed his forehead, "Well I guess we'll have to find you another helper."

Janet stared back at him with her patented 'are you freakin' kidding me' look. She planted her hand on her hip, "Sully I can run this bar blindfolded with one hand tied behind my back. I'm sure I can handle a few corny decorations," she said with a wave of her hand as she cleared some dishes off the tables.

"Fine. Your call," Sully shrugged.

"Thank you," she called after him.

She began to swab the table she'd just cleared when she heard Sully call out, "Hey! Eddie, you're here early."

Her heart began to race and her cheeks grew hot as she tried to busy herself.

"Hey Sul. Just came by to pick up a couple of heroes for Phil and I," Eddie's voice answered.

_Remember, last night did not happen. Eddie was just drunk. Don't coerce the poor guy into something he was only semi-aware he was doing. _ Before she could make a quick exit into the kitchen, Eddie spotted her.

"Hey stranger," Eddie greeted before she had a chance to get away.

Janet stopped and turned, sweeping a strand of hair out of her eye, "Hey Eddie grab a seat anywhere, I'll be with you shortly." She tried to sound as casual as she could.

"Uh sure," Eddie said taking the menu she handed him and parked himself in a booth by the window.

A few minutes later Janet came out, she looked like she ran a brush through her hair, but other than that she looked like good 'ol Janet.

"Hey sorry," she said out of breath, "I was just clearing up some dishes," she jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at the kitchen.

"That's okay," Eddie said calmly smiling slightly as he studied her. "Wanna sit?" he asked gesturing to the seat across from him.

Janet smiled shyly, "Uh, actually I'm supposed to be working."

"Oh," Eddie replied, "That's a shame."

Janet never thought of Eddie in a romantic way – mostly because she would never have dreamt that he'd ever look at her the same way – but the way he was watching her now was making her very nervous. She snapped out of her thoughts and said, "Can I get you anything?"

"Janet…" Eddie began sensing her nervousness.

"Some coffee, or tea…," she continued.

"Actually there _is_ something I'd like," Eddie shifted in his seat, unsure of how to precede, "Uh, about last night…"

Janet looked at him expectantly. She wanted to know how much of last night he actually remembered. "Yeah?"

Eddie raised his eyebrows and gestured with his hands, "I was a little drunk, so I just wanted to make sure…"

"Eddie don't even worry about it," Janet held up a hand to stop him from saying anything further, "You were drunk you didn't know what you were saying…"

"Well I mean I wasn't _that_ drunk…" Eddie corrected frowning slightly.

"I mean we all say things we regret later…"

"What're you talkin about?" Eddie asked baffled while Janet kept trying to talk over him, "I didn't regret… Janet!" he raised his voice and stood up, grabbing her by the arms to still her. That did it. Janet piped down and looked up at him with her big blue eyes. Eddie was a little surprised that that's all it took to shut her up, and he smiled, humour filling his brown eyes, "That was easy."

Janet looked away, irritated about the effect he had on her now.

"I was _going to say,_" Eddie began slowly, "since you didn't give me an answer last night, I was just making sure I wasn't overstepping my bounds here."

Janet's eyes darted up to meet his, "What? You mean you remember asking me out?"

"I do," Eddie replied playfully rocking back on his heels, getting a little shy himself.

"And… you don't regret doing that?"

"Of course not," Eddie replied frowning slightly, "I really would like us to go out sometime," he flashed her a lopsided grin and then added quickly, "But if you don't want to…"

"No! No it's not that… it's just…," Janet fiddled with the ring on her finger, "I mean I want to but… aren't you worried about how it's going to look to everyone else?"

Eddie took a step back in realisation, "Is that why you didn't give me a straight answer last night?"

"Well," Janet cringed sheepishly.

"No, I don't care what everyone else thinks. And you shouldn't either. The way I see it, it's my life and I can do whatever the hell I want to with it and with whomever I want to."

Janet smiled chewing on her lower lip, "You sure?"

Eddie looked around trying to think of how he could convince her he was for real. "You know what? What time do you get off work today?" he asked stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Sully has me decorating this place after it closes," Janet replied reluctantly, "So it doesn't look like I'll be free until after that which could be around 2am."

"I'll come by at closing and help you set up. We'll have the bar to ourselves; we can have an unofficial date."

"Really, that's not necessary," Janet said waving her hand.

"Of course it is," Eddie smiled, his eyes teasing, "How else will I know if you want to date me for me or my money?"

Janet laughed, "Alright," she relented, "Come by at 12."

"I'll see you then," Eddie hesitated a second and then leaned forward and pecked her on her cheek, which turned pink instantly.

"See ya," she watched as he sauntered out of the bar and got in his truck to drive off. Suddenly putting up decorations had never seemed more appealing.


	2. Chapter 2

Ch 2

Janet looked at her watch and sighed. 12:30 am. Eddie still wasn't there. Turning to the bar, she reached under it and hauled out a giant box of Papier-mâché pumpkins and orange string lights along with a myriad of other decorations to commemorate the advent of the town's long-standing tradition of Pumpkin Fest.

She was disappointed despite herself. _I shouldn't have expected anything. It's not like it was set in stone. _ She told herself over and over. The bar was almost completely empty now, as most of the staff had left for the night.

"Hey Janet are you sure you're gonna be okay to do this yourself?" her co-worker Jono asked as he opened the door to leave.

Janet turned to face him and smiled sweetly as she leaned on the bar top with her elbow, "If I said no, would you stay back and take my place?" she wiggled her eyebrows comically.

"Nope. But I get brownie points for showing consideration right?" Jono grinned and Janet laughed.

"Get out of here," she said shaking her head.

"I'll see ya tomorrow. Good night," Jono said as he exited.

"Night," she smiled as she watched him walk away and get into his truck.

"Well Janet at least he's consistent," Janet said aloud her thoughts wandering back to Eddie again. "Should know by now, you can't count on a quarterback for anything," she began ranting to herself. She picked up a few paper autumn leaves and began sorting through the rest of the decorations.

"I'm not exactly a quarterback anymore," Eddie said and Janet leaped out of her skin for the second time that day.

"My God, Eddie you scared me!" Janet said clutching her heart.

"Sorry," Eddie said with a shrug as he walked up to her.

"How long have you been standing there?" she demanded when her heart rate returned to normal.

"Just got here. Jono left the door unlocked, the idiot," Eddie said stuffing his hands in his pockets. He had an unreadable smile on his face. "You were looking forward to seeing me."

Janet dropped her gaze to the decorations in her hand, "Only in the sense that you promised to help," she said taking the armload of decorations and dumping it in Eddie's hands.

Eddie nodded, "Uh huh," he teased with a smirk. Janet ignored him and started hanging the strings of lights around the doorframes.

"So…," she said finally after a moment of silence, "What took you so long?"

"Phil needed something to be done," Eddie explained.

"Oh. Can you pass me the tape?" Janet asked not taking her eyes off the lights.

"Sure," Eddie scouted around for the tape in the box and began tearing off a piece for her. "Why is Sully going all out for this fruity tradition anyway? He doesn't usually knuckle under."

Janet glanced over her shoulder and smiled at him, "The Knight's Ridge Decoration Committee struck down hard on him this year."

"Ah. Totalitarianism. Never underestimate it," Eddie quipped as he started to walk away with the tape.

"I'm gonna need that so just leave it with me," Janet said gesturing to the tape before she reached up to tack the wires to the frame.

Eddie tossed the tape in the air and then tucked it into her jeans pocket, his fingers grazed the exposed skin between her jeans and t-shirt making her jump slightly. Eddie looked up in surprise and chuckled when he saw her cheeks turn pink. "Relax I'm just making sure it doesn't fall out."

"Sure, yeah I know," Janet replied dismissively. More silence. "Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot," Eddie replied untangling another string of lights he got out of the box. He hunkered over and went down on one knee to rummage through the box.

"Why do you want to go out with me? Really. You don't have trouble getting girls. Heck you could fling a dart out of the window and the first girl it hits would go out with you. Why me?"

Eddie leaned an elbow on his knee and looked up at her thoughtfully. "Last night we were talking about turning over a new leaf and you said maybe I should be dating a different kind of girl," he shrugged casually, "I thought there might be something to it."

Janet jerked her chin to the side and raised a brow, "Well I'm certainly different," Janet didn't want to admit it to him, but the fact that he thought she'd be a different way to go, hurt a little. Because she knew exactly how she was different to the other girls he dated.

"That's not what I meant," Eddie clarified and stood up to come face-to-face with her. He gazed down at her and his eyes flickered to something behind her. When Janet turned to see what he saw she saw Rooster staring at them.

"What're you doing here?" Janet asked surprised. Rooster stared back with cool blue eyes.

"Sully told me to put up the decorations," Rooster replied.

"I thought you broke your leg. So Sully asked me to do it instead," Janet said.

"Yeah don't sweat it man. Janet and I have got it covered," Eddie said light-heartedly.

Rooster hobbled in on a crutch, "Oh I'm sure you do Eddie," Rooster sneered.

"Rooster," Janet warned. What was his deal?

"Sully told me to do this and I'm not leaving until it gets done!" Rooster snapped, shocking Janet.

"Uh, actually if he wants to take over he's more that welcome to," Eddie told Janet and she turned to look at him with surprise.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah. C'mon I'll take you home. You've got this, right man?" Eddie asked Rooster one last time as he led Janet out the door by the small of her back.

"You don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

"Okay," Eddie said playing along. He knew Rooster would be trapped under the ladder before he was done with the decorations but for some reason Eddie felt like busting his chops.

"Don't forget to lock up," Janet reminded Rooster.

Once they were out of the bar and walking towards their cars, Janet turned to face Eddie, "How exactly were you planning on taking me home? We came in separate cars."

"I just wanted to make him mad. He seemed irritated that I was hanging with you," Eddie confessed sheepishly.

Janet laughed, "That's mean."

"That's life."

Janet really wanted to go back to what they were talking about but it didn't take a genius to figure out that the moment had passed. "Well I'll maybe see you round Eddie."

"See you around. Definitely," Eddie said with a smile and she turned to leave, "Uh Janet?"

"Yeah?"

Eddie hesitated and shifted his weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other, "You're different because you're real."

Janet blushed, "Oh. I see." She smiled at him and he smiled back, "Well I better get going."

"Yeah, it's getting pretty late."

When Eddie didn't make a move to get into his truck Janet stopped short. "Aren't you gonna go home?" she asked confused.

Eddie gestured towards the bar, "I'll hang out here for a bit and then go check on him. Make sure he hasn't killed himself under that ladder."

Janet smiled, "Why Eddie Latekka I do believe you're a big 'ol soft serve inside," She teased and Eddie chuckled shyly, "Okay, well… Good night."

"Night." Eddie smiled back and held her eyes a moment too long. "I'll see you in the morning."

Janet got into her station wagon, looked out at Eddie, and waved before she drove off, feeling elated and full of hope for the possibilities the future held.


End file.
